After Babel (was: Language changes, spelling reform)

> > I have one worse.  I attempted to read "After Babel: Aspects of Language
> > and Translation" but gave up about halfway through because the author
> > would chase tangents ad nauseum and *never* seemed to get to his original
> > point.  It was a like a long, dry, stream-of-consciousness on
> > languages.  A great subject matter, but terrible book.  Plus, the author
> > was fond of quoting long passages in Latin, German, and French without
> > translating them, which I found arrogant and irritating.
>
> > So, if anyone's thought about reading the above book, don't bother.
>
> Chacun a son goût...I thoroughly enjoyed it. An intelligent, thoughtful man
> muses on language and translation. I didn't really read it as a thesis, so
> wasn't actively searching for a "point". Too, color me elitist -- I haven't
> read the book in a good eight years, but I'm sure it has copious footnotes
> pointing you to original texts and translations thereof if one needs to
> search them out. He's not writing for auto mechanics or farmers, for
> goodness sake; he's discussing difficulties and nuances with translation.
Then let him *write* about translation!  I read the book hoping to get
some interesting insights into aspects of language pragmatics and cultural
nuances, etc., but instead I got a lot of disconnected and
long-winded fragments about the future tense and etymology of the word
"motion."  Plus, he made what I thought were some rather silly assertions,
like saying that the future tense developed in response to the Vedic ideas
of the long lifespan of Brahma.

Whatever the merits are, I have little patience with books that seem to
have lots of unnecessary fluff and don't stick to a theme.  I don't mind
books tackling diverse issues, just so long as there's something to tie
them together and add coherence.  Otherwise its pointless rambling.

> As
> such, I think he's allowed to presume his (Western) audience will have at
> least working familiarity with those three biggies. Flawless, no -- a good
> read, yes. That we can all do so well.
Agreed, although I don't know how much help a "working familiarity" would
be with the dense, philosophical passages that he quotes.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_